


When a Bard Doesn't Listen

by DeepClosetFan (inujuju)



Series: The Price We Pay [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Asphyxiation, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Car Accidents, Cultstuck, Emotional Manipulation, Explicit Sexual Content, Food Poisoning, Gun Violence, Humanstuck, Insanity, Multi, Murder, Possession, Suicide Attempt, Violence, You choose ;), after SBURB, lots of death, no sburb session
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-11 20:33:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1177602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inujuju/pseuds/DeepClosetFan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Gamzee becoming more and more distant, Karkat starts to become desperate to keep him close. He blames himself for the dissolving friendship and feels that it’s because he’s a freak that Gamzee is leaving him. Add on to the fact that Kanaya is always with Rose and Terezi with Dave, Karkat is left in the unsafe embrace of his mind and the voices. </p><p>And they give him an idea that will keep Gamzee by his side forever.</p><p>One that involves miracles and murder.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When a Bard Doesn't Listen

**Author's Note:**

> Originally this story was set to be in the canon universe but I decided to make it a Humanstuck AU (or did I?) to allow for more flexibility.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> Warning: The story contains large amount of graphic violence and gruesome character death. Please read at your discretion.

The mirthful messiahs. A pathetic god conjured by cultists who lacked the ability to sustain themselves. People who craved the never ending magic of miracles and praised anything to be so. They never tried to learn about the world, merely feeling everything to be set in some grand stone painted with happiness. Followers would be embraced by the messiahs and when the final disaster took place, the end of the world, they would be given the greatest blessing of all. They would be taken to the miracle planet, where there was nothing but happiness.

Karkat despised the religion, even more so because the followers would follow after him. His candy coloured eyes, so unnatural and bright, was a beacon to them. The first messiah had descended thousands of years before, bearing the mirthful colour of sweetness and joy. It wasn’t the dull colours of genetic sickness nor was it painted by machines. It was raw and natural, yet still a miracle. Eyes that changed colour, that fluctuated from the warmest of red to the coolest of purple. Rainbow eyes they called them. Mircale eyes.

 Karkat’s family weren’t believers, never would be. However that didn’t stop the cult from sinking their teeth into the boy, dragging him into their circles of false happiness. Where they would dance around him and praise him to be the second messiah, the duo to the single.

 The cult members themselves were harmless. People who were so lost in despair they would turn to anything to find happiness. At first Karkat was terrified of them, as he rightfully should being only three. They often stopped in the streets upon seeing his eyes, falling to their knees before him. His parents were worried and careful, hiring body guards and implementing security cameras to protect their son.

However one day something changed that made Karkat see the cult in a different light and allow them to take him away.

His mother, a sweet woman really, tried to kill him. She called him a demon, a monster, a creature fit for nothing but slaughter. Those miracle eyes were disgusting to her. The doctors had said they would settle by his fifth birthday, just a little trick of lighting and damaged melanocytes in the iris. However they didn’t and when the boy turned six, his eyes still a whirl of colour, his mother lost herself.

Karkat’s father had rushed into the room, tried to protect him, but was killed by the woman who in turn killed herself over the deed. Karkat was left there, in his small room with two bleeding corpses for nine days.

It was a miracle that he survived.

Or that’s what the Makara family considered it to be. They weren’t related to the Vantas’ in any way but no one wanted the “deranged” child who had stayed in a room of corpses. Karkat was originally going to be placed in an orphanage but the Makara’s stepped forward. They were the boy’s neighbours and considered themselves friends of the family.

They were members of the cult but they checked out at the orphanage and Karkat was placed into their care right away. The only thing that had changed about the silent six year old boy was that his eyes had finally chosen a colour to settle on.

A bloody,

Sinful,

Red.

The cult however refused to believe the messiah had been lost. They believed the blasphemous act by Karkat’s guardians had merely resulted in the messiah locking itself in a deep slumber. After all, the Makara’s claimed that, at odd times of the day, his pupils would shimmer into other colours, if the light hit them just right. No one dared to doubt them as it was their pockets that kept the cult a float.

Karkat felt that, even if that wasn’t the case, the desperate members would cling to the miracle that he apparently was. At the end of the day, Karkat grew up with the freaks of society, hugged them and rubbed their back, petted their heads and sung them lullabies. To him they were children in adult bodies, needing mothers and fathers to look after them. Somehow he started to feel responsible for them. As the “miracles” he performed on them calmed them, make them smile and strong enough to go through another week, Karkat felt like he was doing some good.

That he wasn’t the monster his mother claimed him to be.

So he stayed with the Makara’s, grew up with the cult, and watched his eyes shift colours in the morning as he listened to the voices echo in his head.

~

Gamzee was the youngest child of the Makara household before Karkat was adopted. He was held above the others and herald as the messenger of the messiahs. While his eyes were not the ever shifting rainbow that marked the mirthful beings they were a most beautiful purple, a colour unseen in human eyes. They were far richer than the violet caused by blasphemy and lies and the Makara’s treated him special. Even his older brother raised him with care and love, not an ounce of jealousy in his soul.

For how could he be jealous of being able to bask in the presence of the bard?

Their belief strengthened when they drove through a new neighbourhood, looking for a new home, and Gamzee insisted on the three story amethyst one that stood across the street from a small, one story brown house. They didn’t question the decision and bought it without hesitance and their faith paid off when, the next day, their neighbours from the brown house welcomed them to the neighbourhood, carrying a small bundle with rainbow eyes.

Needless to say the whole family dropped to their knees in awe and prayer.

Despite the actions that seemed to unsettled the Vantas family, the Makara’s always went out of their way to help them. The elder brother mowed the lawn and the mother brought over baked goods while the father helped fix their car when it broke down. The most important however, was that Gamzee became the miracle child’s playmate.

Karkat, as he was named, was a gentle child who chose his words carefully and coloured within the lines. The Makara’s were a little disappointed to learn that the boy seemed to follow the “seen not heard” idea but Gamzee was always able to bring forth a soft giggle or delighted gasp when they were together. The bard was able to speak for the boy, their understanding and connection unseen by either family before.

The Makara’s understood it of course, Gamzee was the messiahs messenger and Karkat the messiah. He spoke for the boy when the boy could not form the words needed. However the Vantas’ did not understand and soon the Makara’s noticed a change in the mother. Distance and neglect. No longer would she bounce Karkat on her knee, no longer would she smile fondly and let him eat one more slice of the Makara’s pie, no longer would she hold him even as he held out his hands patiently.

It had been over a week since their last visit with the Vantas household when Gamzee tugged at his father’s pant and told him he was scared for Karkat. Something was wrong.

It was the elder brother who found the bodies after they broke into the Vantas house when they received no answer. It was Gamzee who found Karkat who had hidden in the shadows.

The next day Karkat was officially adopted into their home.

~

Karkat had gained his voice when he turned ten; the free living style of the Makara’s rubbing off on him. His vocabulary was just as colourful as his eyes and even while it caused most people to cringe it caused the cultists to laugh.

The beautiful rage that Karkat held to, the elaborate sentences he could construct within seconds, it was gorgeous and they all basked in the sound of his voice. Some wondered why the mirthful messiah was so filled with rage but Gamzee explained that it was simply because he was so mad that he couldn’t make everyone happy.

Karkat had yelled at Gamzee but thanked him in private. The miracle boy, despite what the others had told him, was always surprised how Gamzee could see past his charade and find the core meaning of his words, even if Gamzee couldn’t explain the voices Karkat heard.

~

When Gamzee turned twenty two and Karkat twenty, the younger decided to move out of the house and go to college, hoping to obtain a degree in adult counselling. The Makara’s worried about losing touch with him but it was misplaced because Gamzee had already planned to move out as well. The older didn’t have the interest in school but Karkat had grown so used to his presence that it never doubted the other moving out with him.

Gamzee took a job as a bartender, being able to perform fascinating tricks with the drinks while Karkat studied. They didn’t need the money but Karkat hated relying on the Makara’s and since they shared an apartment, Gamzee was able to convince him to pay for it instead.

It wasn’t like he was doing anything else.

~

Kanaya was Karkat’s peer in school with a focus on children counselling. The two got along well and while Kanaya didn’t approve of Gamzee’s cult she accepted the smiles he gave her. She often helped Karkat with his studies because he was always at the Makara’s for the weekends, losing precious study time. Karkat considered Kanaya to be his best friend after Gamzee.

John was Gamzee’s co-worker at the bar with a habit of breaking more glass than serving. The two got along well and while John was shocked by Karkat’s anger he soon became friends with him. John often helped Gamzee by covering his shift when he went home and even offered to move in with them to help cover the costs of rent. Gamzee called John his best friend, saving best motherfucking friend for Karkat of course.

Gamzee and Karkat often shared stories at the end of the day, keeping each other up to date on their lives. Gamzee would laugh at the crazy tangents Karkat went on about Kanaya while Karkat smiled at the insane pranks John and Gamzee pulled. Despite the different paths they took, they were still deeply connected to each other.

However as Karkat learned more about the world and began explaining miracles, he found Gamzee tuning him out.

~

In his final year of school, Karkat met Terezi and Gamzee met Tarvos. A blind law student and a paraplegic waiter. A heart breaker and a non-believer.

The voices will finally be heard.

~

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is currently un-beta'd so I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.
> 
> I plan to implement art and audio into this story so there will be large gaps between chapters. Please be patient as I work to complete this work and take this first chapter as a little teaser for what is to come~


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